you're using photon mapping for the caustics, right?  Ever since these 
guys have been posting these bruteforce renders, I've been noticing an 
interesting pattern about photon mapping:  the caustics don't match the 
shape of the source of light, you look at your render and to that of 
Severi and you notice your caustics are focused in one point while his 
are large and in the shape of the light sphere.  And that is to be 
expected, since photon mapping reacts to the (point)light source, not to 
a physical object emitting light, like in the bruteforce methods.

But radiosity works ok for that purpose.  Like here, just first 
radiosity pass as I don't have the time right now for a complete 
render... there are a few radiosity artifacts left, you could raise the 
count a bit...



#local GIgather = 1;

#default { pigment { rgb 1 } finish { ambient 0 diffuse .5 } }

global_settings {
	adc_bailout .02
	radiosity {
		brightness 1.8
		gray_threshold .3
		error_bound .1
		low_error_factor .5
		#if (GIgather)
		save_file "pde.rad"
		count 80*4
		recursion_limit 3
		always_sample no
		nearest_count 16
		pretrace_end .006
		#else
		load_file "pde.rad"
		count 1
		recursion_limit 1
		always_sample no
		nearest_count 1
		pretrace_end 1
		pretrace_start 1
		#end
	}
}

#macro refl()
#if (!GIgather)
	reflection 1
#end
#end

union {
	plane { y, 0 }
	plane { x, -2 }
	// light ball
	sphere { y*2-x/2, .8 pigment { rgb <1,.9,.6> } finish { ambient 3 
diffuse 1 }}
	// back balls
	sphere { <-1,1,2>, 1 pigment { rgb x } finish { diffuse 1/3 refl() 
metallic .5 }}
	sphere { <1,1,2>, 1 pigment { rgb x+y } finish { diffuse 1/3 refl() }}
	// glass ball
	sphere { <.2,.5,-.6>, .4 pigment { rgbt 1 } finish { diffuse 0 } hollow 
interior {ior 1.33}}
	sphere { <-.7,.7,-1.5>, .4 pigment { rgbt 1 } finish { diffuse 0 } 
hollow interior {ior 1.33}}
}

camera {
	location <0,1.4,-5>
	look_at 0
	angle 55
	#if (!GIgather)
	aperture .01 blur_samples 40*6 variance .0000001 confidence .99
	#end
}

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